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Chicken Murals by Cache

Self taught street muralist and graffiti artist Cache has been painting the streets of Los Angeles with his signature bubble chickens since 2001. His style is both edgy and whimsical, drawing inspiration from writers like Carlos Castañeda, who describes people as being trapped by human chicken coops — humaneros. The chicken symbolizes how society has been constantly influenced by corporate branding. In response to the “media assault on the human psyche,” he found a logo of his own that would conversely fight the effects of homogenization, according to an article in Beautiful Decay Magazine.

“I paint throughout the city of L.A. from Hollywood to South Central, I don’t discriminate when it comes to walls…I live and breathe bicycles and painting and the projects that I like to create vary according to my mood. Sometimes I’m very political and sometimes I just want to make you smile.”

A Guatemalan immigrant, he grew up near the landmark Belmont Tunnel, which was known in the nineties for its huge, colorful and artistic graffiti murals. He was inspired by crews like MAK and STN, who were taking risks and revolutionizing the street art scene. He started out with basic “bomb-style” lettering and the chicken logo developed casually as a joke, according to Cache, but soon took on a complex and layered meaning as he started reading and studying about hegemony and media control. The development of his political persona can be seen over time, with the development of Zapatista cartoons, and other pieces like the Arab and Jew chickens, according to blog.crewest.com.